Alteryx Designer Desktop Ideas

Hello,

A very simple idea : 
as of today, there are dedicated connectors to Sharepoint, OneDrive and Azure Data Lake.
For all these connectors, the files we can read are limited, very limited : xlsx, csv, yxdb

The location of the storage is not relevant, we should be able to read any already supported file on these locations (like parquet or shp or whatever).

Best regards,

Simon

For the Output Tool it would be very beneficial to be able to pass a password in order to populate a password protected Excel spreadsheet. It appears there is a decent amount of interest based on the Community feedback pertaining to the subject.

Currently, the Alteryx Designer canvas can only be extended to the right and downward. This restriction makes organizing complex workflows more difficult, especially when trying to insert new logic upstream or manage spatial layout more naturally. It forces users to design in a constrained directional flow, limiting flexibility and sometimes resulting in awkwardly stretched workflows.

Proposed Solution:
Introduce an Infinite Canvas option that allows users to pan and place tools in any direction: left, right, up, or down. This would:

• Enable more natural workflow layout and organization
• Allow insertion of tools before existing logic without major rearrangement
• Improve visibility and navigation for large, complex workflows
• Mirror the functionality of modern visual tools like Figma, Miro, or Lucidchart

Bonus Suggestion:
Include a toggle or setting in Preferences to enable Infinite Canvas mode, so users can choose their preferred design behavior.    

Impact:
Improved usability, better layout control, reduced time spent reformatting workflows, and a more modern, flexible design experience for Alteryx users at all levels.

Hi, 

One idea is to have the Select/Table Sheet be dynamically name according to the the interface browse tool prompt. When users are uploading many files it can get confusing. 

Thanks,

Chris

In 24.1 the email tool was adjusted such that any error in the workflow prevents the email tool from sending any emails. Previously, if AMP was enabled, the email tool could still send emails even if the workflow contained an error, but this is no longer the case. There are many cases where this is not ideal, one example being:

In larger workflows, I have multiple data streams which, after a point, operate independently. Even if one stream errors, I would like emails to be sent from the other streams. I have tried nesting the email tool within multiple layers of macros, but if any of the parent or child workflows/macros contain an error, the email tool will not send any emails. 

I would like a checkbox option in the email tool or workflow configuration that will still allow emails to be sent if the workflow errors. Then, with the use of control containers, I will have full control over email distribution with errors. 

Allow the user to select which type of Join is happening in the join tool. Allow the J anchor to output the join type within a radio option in the tool configuration. Right now the J anchor outputs matches in both inputs. New suggestion would allow the user to select a Right Outer or Left Outer join without having to use a Union tool after the Join.

It would be nice to track changes. The function would need to have an on and off switch. Some workflows are large and you want to go back to the changes you've made. My team has 2 identical workflows one for production and one for validation. Tracked changes would help manage changes between both workflows. The tracked changes could be something like highlighting the tools red once changed, and after the function is turned on. I have attached a sample image for your reference. Thank you.

Hi,

I would like to see an option within the 'Find Nearest Tool' (and maybe other Tools like it) to exclude from results when a particular Target field equals a particular Universe field.  This could be added right under the 'Ignore 0 Distance Matches' in config window.  You could have drop-downs (like a filter tool) to pick the fields etc.  Example of what I'm doing:  One Address may have multiple accounts and it's in Target and Universe.  Ignoring 0 Distance would drop all the other Accounts at the same address.  I only want it to ignore the Universe Address if it has the same Account Number and the Target Account Number.  That is a little deeper drill than just ignore 0 Distance but not too hard to add.

As it stands, I don't ignore 0 Distance.  I have a formula after the 'Find Nearest' to drop  Target Acct Nbr = Universe Acct Nbr.   Then a 'Multi-Row Formula' tool to fix the find nearest order.  This works, but I thought it might be nice to have it in the tool.

dynamic select have field information like [field number] and etc.
i appreciate it available in dynamic rename. 

since both also manipulate with header.

Currently SharePoint Input Tool allows downloading a file from SharePoint to local machine, then we can process it locally, this is great since the tool can only handle 3 types of files and won't support the rest like Zip or anything else.
SharePoint Output tool, only support the same 3 files type, but will not allow uploading to SharePoint a local file, similar to the input tool but in reverse. Why is this important:

1- We can create local files that is in a format like KML, KMZ, ZIP etc., which we can't upload it to SharePoint after.

2- updating multiple sheets on the same file, updating locally then uploading the file to SharePoint will be a lot faster and more efficient. 

it is easier to overcome above challenges if we use Alteryx Designer and Sync the SharePoint, or map it to local drive or folder. but it is impossible to do it when using and scheduling it on Alteryx Server.

Please update the SharePoint Output tool to allow uploading any type of file(s). Thank you.

I would love to see horizontal scrolling support for mice. Currently, you allow scrolling vertically, but not horizontally. It would be so much quicker to be able to navigate with horizontal scrolling support.

1. Image Processing Tool functionality should be available in Reporting tools.

2. Image Output Location should allow for a temp file location

3. Image Processing should allow lock of aspect ratio when Cropping (like Scale)

4. Image Processing should allow for fieldname selection for Crop, Scale ...etc to allow for custom calculations.  Being able to generate custom values for width and height based upon the values generated in from image profile would be useful

When using certain tools, particularly market place tools like the SharePoint input/ output etc. it would be helpful to have a quick way to find out which version is being used in a workflow. Something along the lines of an option when you right click the tool, that displays the current version would be ideal. 

This would be helpful in several cases but primarily when handing over workflows. There are cases when I have multiple versions of the same tool installed so that I don't have any issues inheriting workflows. This does however, make things confusing when handing workflows back. Tool Version Labelling would solve this problem.

Regards - Pilsner

Anytime you create a formula in the formula tool, you get a data preview based on the values in the first row of data.  However, if you have a complex "IF c THEN t ELSEIF c2 THEN t2 ELSE f ENDIF" formula then the data combination that gives a TRUE result will likely exist on another row.  Therefore, you need to run the workflow, or place a filter tool upstream to isolate the specific row, to test if the formula result is correct.  

It would be easier if you could select the Input anchor of the Formula tool, then filter the data in the results window to isolate the row in questions, then the data preview would be based on that filtered data set.  I believe this would save a lot of time in the workflow development phase.

So many tools especially Spatial Tools require a browse tool to be useful. Why not automatically add a browse tool when you add a spatial tool it could even be an option you could select. "Yes Auto Add browse" or not. Even during spatial trainings the instructions keep saying add spatial tool now add a browse tool and hit run. we can always toggle of the browse tools or delete them once we are finished developing. i know there are keyboard shortcuts and i use those but i think this would be a very simple addition.  

For the PDF to Text tool- Config section-  

We suggest a potential config change with pages to take in and scrub, similar to a print # of pages which can help benefit and drive more accuracy and ultimately performance as a separate section or within the Text Extraction Options

Hello,

I really would appreciate the ability to store our templates in a Teams/Sharepoint (or whatever exists) folder. However, it doesn't work today :

Best regards,

Simon

I want to have the ability to share workflows with non-Alteryx users so they can see what steps were followed within my workflows in order to create the output(s). Without a read-only viewer Alteryx users are forced to screenshot and write out the steps they followed in the workflows to document what they did which can be extremely laborious and time consuming when workflows get into the 50+ tool range. A read-only viewer would save Alteryx users time and give non-Alteryx users a sneak peak into how Alteryx works as well. It could peak the interest of non-Alteryx users to learn more about Alteryx and possibly convince them to download a trial and eventually purchase a license, so it could improve documentation methods as well as be an asset for marketing to non-Alteryx users. For reference, Tableau offers a similar solution called Reader.

when using switch formula as a more elegant way then if else

't' is not working in switch while it working in if then.

so i recommend to have a formula call True() and False() as excel to solve this issue.